US 11,449,380 B2 · Method for detecting and recovery from soft errors in a computing device

Abstract

A method for detecting and recovery from a soft error in a computing device is provided. In examples discussed herein, the method can be performed to detect soft errors that may occur during execution of a predefined critical instruction(s) and/or has been propagated in the computing device prior to the execution of the predefined critical instruction(s). Specifically, a software compiler may be used to embed an error detector block(s) after the predefined critical instruction(s). In this regard, the error detector block(s) can be executed after the predefined critical instruction(s) to detect the soft error. Accordingly, it may be possible to invoke a diagnosis routine to determine severity of the detected soft error and take appropriate action against the detected soft error. As such, it may be possible to protect the execution of the predefined critical instruction(s) concurrent to eliminating vulnerable voting intervals and reducing soft error detection overhead.

Claims22

Dependent claims

A method for detecting and recovery from soft errors in a computing device comprising:

executing a predefined critical instruction;
executing an error detector block subsequent to executing the predefined critical instruction to detect a soft error in the computing device, wherein executing the error detector block comprises:
portioning a plurality of programmer-accessible registers in the computing device into at least one master register, at least one detection register, and at least one recovery register;
generating the error detector block comprising:
a master instruction sequence configured to operate on the at least one master register;
a detection instruction sequence configured to operate on the at least one detection register;
and
a recovery instruction sequence configured to operate on the at least one recovery register;
and
executing sequentially the master instruction sequence, the detection instruction sequence, and the recovery instruction sequence after executing the predefined critical instruction to detect the soft error associated with executing the predefined critical instruction;
and
invoking a diagnosis routine and a recovery routine in response to detecting the soft error.

9 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium (CRM) comprising software with instructions configured to:

execute a predefined critical instruction;
execute an error detector block subsequent to executing the predefined critical instruction to detect a soft error in a computing device, wherein executing the error detector block comprises:
portioning a plurality of programmer-accessible registers in the computing device into at least one master register, at least one detection register, and at least one recovery register;
generating the error detector block comprising:
a master instruction sequence configured to operate on the at least one master register;
a detection instruction sequence configured to operate on the at least one detection register;
and
a recovery instruction sequence configured to operate on the at least one recovery register;
and
executing sequentially the master instruction sequence, the detection instruction sequence, and the recovery instruction sequence after executing the predefined critical instruction to detect the soft error associated with executing the predefined critical instruction;
and
invoke a diagnosis routine in response to detecting the soft error.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method for detecting and recovery from soft errors in a computing device

Life of this patent

Method for detecting and recovery from soft errors in a computing device

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims22